Horrors of Unit 731: A global call for peace and remembrance

"Please, do whatever you want with me, but let my daughter go!" begged Zhao Huixiu, a Chinese woman, to the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army assigned to Unit 731. But to no avail. The soldiers snatched her baby from her breast, stomped it on the ground as if it were a piece of meat. Then covered it with snow, letting it freeze to death while it cried.

In the wake of this horrifying act, the woman fell silent. During her long captivity, she carried a small pillow in her arms, the only thing the poor woman could hold on to, convincing herself that it was her child, still alive.

Later, Zhao was tied to a table as soldiers poured freezing water on her exposed hands. Despite the agony, she pressed the pillow against her chest. When her wrists froze to the bone, the soldiers began striking them with a stick.

After long hours of torture, they took her inside and poured hot water on her hands to melt the ice. Her wrists, fractured from the beating, slouched down, and the extreme temperature shock caused the muscles to separate from her broken bones. The woman screamed in agonizing pain, and every soldier of Unit 731 heard her, but no one cared.

In the end, the soldiers amputated her exposed bones and threw her in jail, deeming her fit for another "human experiment". To keep her in the best condition possible, they placed her beloved pillow into her womb, which she considered to be her long-lost child. Stripped of everything, she had nothing left but the need to forget the cruel reality she was living.

This was the fate of Zhao, a 24-year-old woman from Heilongjiang province, in Camp 731, on March 9, 1945. Tragically, her story is just one of tens of thousands. All of these atrocities were orchestrated by one man: lieutenant general of the Imperial Japanese Army medical corps Shiro Ishii, the commander of Unit 731. His unit's sole purpose was to perform gruesome experiments on innocent civilians to aid the Japanese war effort. The victims were considered expendable by the soldiers of Unit 731, who viewed them as nothing more than lab rats.

In Europe the atrocities of Unit 731 are often compared to the experiments of Dr Josef Mengele in the Arbeitslager Auschwitz-Birkennau (today Poland, then Nazi Germany) concentration camp. However, the main difference lies in the scale of the atrocities. In Auschwitz, Dr Mengele's experiments were confined to the camp's infirmary, while the rest of the population was systemically exterminated. In contrast, Unit 731's primary objective was to carry out experiments on humans, not to kill them outright.

It is unimaginable for us, Europeans, to think that Dr Mengele would conduct experiments on the whole Auschwitz's population. Yet, this is exactly what lieutenant general Shiro Ishii did with the victims of Unit 731. The atrocities that took place there are so horrendous that we cannot describe them. We shall never forget the victims of Unit 731. Humanity must confront its darkest chapters to prevent history from repeating itself.

The ASA institute stands by initiatives promoting true peace and condemns any abuse and atrocities, regardless of the perpetrator or victim. Mutual respect between nations is the cornerstone of global peace. We express our deepest condolences to the descendants of survivors of the Unit 731 atrocities and all the victims of World War II. We believe that such horrors should never be repeated.

The author is deputy Chairman of the ASA institute. 

The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

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